The subject matter described herein relates generally to applications utilizing electrical stimulation in the form of pulses, such as in cell therapy and other medical contexts.
Pulsed power has numerous industrial applications, such as medical treatments, biotechnology, food processing, water treatment (e.g., water purification), exhaust gas treatment, ozone generation, and ion implantation. For example, transfection is a medical technique used to permeabilize cell membranes to facilitate DNA plasmid entry into the cell. This technique, also known as electroporation, typically involves applying electric pulses with sufficient strength and duration to permeabilize the cell membrane while maintaining viability. Once the cell membrane is rendered “leaky,” DNA in a surrounding buffer solution passes into the cell. Certain in vivo and ex vivo platelet activation methods also utilize pulsed electrical stimulation.
Oftentimes in medical techniques employing pulsed power, the pulse generation system is directly coupled to the container (e.g., a cuvette) that holds the sample being stimulated. In a directly (i.e., conductively) coupled system, the current associated with the electric pulse flows directly through the sample. Typical square wave pulses are utilized for electroporation, where one could adjust the pulse width, the pulse amplitude, number of pulses and the frequency. This may require special containers made of a conductive material (i.e., metal), which may be expensive or which may not be suitable for biological or biochemical specimens.